Louisiana Supreme Court upholds life sentence for Black man over theft

Source: Srdjan Radevic / EyeEm / Getty

Bruh, really???

Amerikkka loves to punish Black people excessively for the dumbest things and still has the nerve to call its system of adjudication “justice”. According to a CNN report, the Louisiana Supreme Court has decided that 62-year-old Fair Wayne Bryant should spend the rest of his life in prison for, wait for it, wait for it…stealing hedge clippers.

Byrant was convicted of simple burglary back in 1997 when he was caught attempting to steal the landscaping tool. In 2018 he appealed his sentence and his lawyer argued that her client “contends that his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive.” Five of the seven judges vehemently disagreed with that assertion. They are all white men. The only one with the good sense that God gave her is Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson. She is the only woman and the only Black person on the bench and she posited that “the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed.” One judge abstained from a ruling.

Mr. Bryant was initially sentenced under a habitual offender law. Stealing the hedge clippers was by no means his first rodeo…

Bryant was convicted in 1979 for attempted armed robbery, in 1987 for possession of stolen things, attempted forgery of a check worth $150 in 1989 and for simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling in 1992, all before his 1997 arrest for the failed attempt at stealing the hedge clippers.

Behind the fact that this is a ridiculous sentence for a ridiculous crime, Justice Bernette tried to appeal to the pragmatic side of the ornery white men she sits beside. She noted that Fair Wayne Bryant has been in prison for 23 years to the tune of $500,000 in taxpayer money.

“If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers,” she wrote.

SMH. Those judges would rather see a ni**a in prison for hedge clippers than to see money spent wisely.

Burn it all down.